Who are all these people buying LG smartphones?

Record 12.1 million shipped in three months

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It's financial results season again, a chance for all the tech companies to insist that everything is fine and we're doing just as well as our competitors thank you very much and hope against hope that no one looks too closely at the actual results.

LG is busy crowing that it shipped a record number smartphones (12.1 million) between April and June 2013, but it's keeping its dip in profits compared to last year couched in fluffy language.

So while the company's net profit of US$139.04m is "down slightly from the same period last year" it also "improved significantly" from the previous quarter.

The previous quarter being January to March, the quarter in which nobody really buys anything.

Anyway...

The mobile division itself has done fairly well out of that 12.1 million smartphone record: operating profit was up compared to last year but down from the first three months of this year because of "weaker demand in the Korean market".

It's expecting that the LG G Pro and LG G2 will revive things, as well as pinning its hopes on mass-market phones like the L-Series and F-Series.

Over in LG's home entertainment division (TVs, Blu-ray players and their ilk) operating profits of $95.37m were up compared to the first quarter, which LG thinks is down to "stronger sales in developing markets" and "successful new models". Three cheers.

But the division's income is down compared to last year's figures because of weak demand and intense competition which in turn meant LG had to opt for lower than average selling prices.

It's hoping that investing in bigger screen TVs and Ultra HD and OLED sets will pull it out of the slump.

Don't worry though, there's still cash coming in from the Home Appliance and air conditioning sides of things, both sections reported record highs.